NEWPORT NEWS — With its once-comfortable lead trimmed to three points early in the fourth quarter, Heritage certainly appeared to be — in using a boxing analogy —on the ropes. Three times in the final nine minutes, Denbigh had the ball in Hurricanes territory with a chance to take the lead.

Each time, including a final stop as the clock reached zeroes, Heritage held. And after nearly three hours of frenzied, back-and-forth football, Heritage escaped with a 32-29 win in the Group 4A South quarterfinals Friday night at Todd Stadium.

"These guys came out and played hard," Canes coach George Massenburg said. "I knew we'd have trouble at times stopping their passing game, but Coach Williams (assistant coach Weymouth Williams) came up with a great defensive scheme. And the guys just played well.

"I'm just ecstatic right now. We have an opportunity to go to the next round, and it hasn't been done in a long time (by Heritage). I'm just at a loss for words."

Massenburg got some unexpected good news from Hampton: Phoebus, the No. 1 seed in 4A South, was upset by No. 9 King's Fork 17-14. Because of that, the fourth-seeded Hurricanes (11-1) will get a home game at Todd in a semifinal against the Bulldogs on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

All this despite zero total yards, two turnovers and no first downs in the final 17 1/2 minutes.

The Hurricanes took a 32-14 lead on Jeremiah Boyd's 65-yard touchdown pass to Dimitri Holloway with 5:34 left. Even when Denbigh answered on Terrence Dingle's 15-yard scoring pass to Jaquan Jenkins (11 catches, 215 yards, three TDs), it was still a two-possession game.

Then came the strangest play of the night. Denbigh's Derek Melton not only busted up a handoff to Juany'e Patillo, he swiped the ball and ran 50 yards for a touchdown. With the Patriots' 2-point conversion, the score suddenly was 32-29 with 10:07 left.

"We made some mistakes on offense," Massenburg said, "and we weren't able to move the ball at critical moments."

After Denbigh's Darius Banks intercepted Boyd, the Patriots looked to be in business at the Hurricanes' 41-yard line. Instead, they went three-and-out.

With 5:39 remaining, Denbigh got another shot from its 44. After two first downs, the Patriots had moved to the Heritage 34 with 3:10 left. But consecutive sacks by Holloway and Treielle Pearson led to a third-and-23, and Dingle threw incomplete twice to end that drive.

Denbigh would get a final chance. Starting from their 19 with 53.1 seconds and no timeouts left, the Patriots again reached Heritage territory. With 13.9 seconds left, Dingle completed a throw to Kalihl Wharton for a first down at the Canes' 28-yard line.

Dingle immediately spiked the ball, which took a second off the clock. On the next play, he completed a 6-yard pass to Tyrik Burns between the right hash and the sideline. He had no chance to get out of bounds, and the clock reached zeroes.